Griffin at panthers

[M.B.88]

A week ago i asked phil goul on Twitter if the players playing too heavy was bought up in the recruitment process for his position he told me it didn't and wasnt a concern. .. Today:

The Daily Telegraph.

Slimmed down Waqa Blake ready to fight for a spot in Penrith’s backline:

On his first day on the job as the new Penrith coach, Anthony Griffin had a simple message for Waqa Blake — you’re too fat.

Blake said he had let himself go during the off-season, and Griffin was far from impressed when the young centre tipped the scales at 108kg on day one of pre-season training.

The 21-year-old was even warned by Griffin he risked being shifted into the forwards if he remained so heavy.

So what did he do? He worked his butt off and lost an amazing 12kg in just over two months.

Blake was already going to do it tough trying to pinch a centre spot off Kiwi internationals Dean Whare and Peta Hiku, who only came on board before Christmas.

But he’s won the battle with the bulge — this week he weighed just 96kg — and now he plans to win a starting spot in Griffin’s young Panthers side.

“He (Griffin) pulled me aside and said, ‘if you’re going to be at that weight, do you want to play in the back row?’,’’ a slimmed-down Blake told The Daily Telegraph this week.

“I said, ‘no’, and he said, ‘if you want to be in the backs and be a good back, you have to get to a good playing weight and lose a lot of weight’.

“I changed a few things in my diet, mostly sugars, and I cut down on my portions.

“This pre-season has also been the toughest pre-season I’ve done — I’ve never done training like this.

“I played around 100kg to 102kg last year, but now I’m lighter again and I can move better.’’

When The Daily Telegraph watched the Panthers players put through a gruelling running session midway through November, Blake was forever last, and could barely lift his giant legs.


This week, however, he looked remarkably lighter and had no problems getting around a boggy Pepper Stadium.

Blake won a City jumper after just four NRL games last year, and while he made his share of errors in his rookie year, the talent was there to see.

But this year Blake, a Fijian raised in Perth, knows it will be tougher with the arrival of Hiku, who was only snapped up late from Manly.

Blake is pushing for a shot in the centres.
“My goal is to play in the centres, if any position is up for grabs, I’ll take it, but centre is my preferred position,’’ Blake said.

“Obviously with (Hiku signing), it makes me want to work harder and better my game. It doesn’t faze me, and I just have to take on the challenge. I’ve come across a lot of challenges, and this isn’t the first challenge. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll look to learn off both those guys.’’

Blake is just one of the young exciting outside backs at Penrith, with Robert and George Jennings also sure to benefit from being thrown into first grade last year.

Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and Josh Mansour are both young and look the likely starting wingers, with Matty Moylan at fullback.

To prove how disciplined Blake has become with his diet, he returned home to Fiji before Christmas to celebrate his belated 21st birthday, but resisted the temptations in paradise, and didn’t let his waistline balloon

http://m.dailytelegraph.com.au/spor...enriths-backline/story-fni3gfvk-1227702079489

 

[tommy]

lol so if players gain weight Griffin just chucks them in the forwards? **** me , good luck Panthers .

 

[M.B.88]

I'd say this is a bit of a marketing article to sway perception.

Everyone knows about the issues griffin created with his bulking of players. .

This is a piece to "ease the minds of the fans"

Hopefully for their sake he is different now

 

[Foordy]

I have said before, that i think a big part of Griffin's problem at the Broncos was that he couldn't make the tough decisions about the players that he coached in the u20's.

And if he's telling players that they need to LOSE weight, instead of bulk up ... then he may just have learnt something from his time at the Broncos.
Im looking forward to seeing how he goes at Penrith

 

[Broncoman]

I wish him the best of luck I have a soft spot for the Panthers and would really like to see them win another premiership as long as it isn't at our expense of course. They've got a young squad and Griffin was really good working with the juniors here so he could be a good fit for them.

 

[theshed]

I hope his time at Broncos scared him the other way and all the panthers show up in round 1 looking like the machinist.

 

[vertigo]

Griffin as coach and Wallace as your halfback.

So glad that never happened..

 

[cento]

Can't believe how good it is watching the panthers play

 

[K-Style]

There's no way Hook didn't learn from his time here, he had a year off to think about it too. Barba and Maranta publicly stated that they were fattened up and both performed far better after slimming down (although Maranta's form seems to be gone again).

Then coming into this season we had all the media attention on how teams were slimming down for the new interchange rule. They were crapping on about how Des Hasler is a genius for slimming down his big units. Nevermind that all teams were focusing on getting lighter and fitter unless they already were (Bennett was a year ahead).

Merrin is getting to be a big unit though. But I think that comes from living at the Panthers new gym.